


It Started with a Scarf

by Harleybert



Category: Homestuck, MS Paint Adventures
Genre: AU, F/M, Fluff, Friends With Benefits, Frottage, Scarves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-11-02
Updated: 2012-11-08
Packaged: 2017-11-17 14:06:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/552373
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harleybert/pseuds/Harleybert
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a world where trolls and humans live side by side, go to school together, go to work together, exist together, one troll extends the olive (or, rather, violet) branch to a human he passes by.</p><p>It all starts with a scarf.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is an AU fic where trolls and humans live, and have lived, side by side. Note that things will undoubtedly take an explicit turn later on, but warnings, characters, and pairings will be updated on a chapter-by-chapter basis.
> 
> This is being written for NaNoWriMo. Can I write a 50k word EriRox fic? Let's find out together!
> 
> Also using 100 fic prompts #001: Beginnings.

The first snowflake that fell came as a surprise to Roxy. The day had been looking pretty clear up until about an hour ago when the first clouds started to roll in. Until then, it had been a crisp, clear December morning. Roxy had spent a fair amount of time acting like she was six years old and pretending to smoke, using her visible breath on the air as if it were coming off the end of a cigarette. It had entertained her, anyway, even if her friends had all rolled their eyes and shook their heads. But she had seen their hidden smiles as they turned away from her, and they had made her smile back.

But the first snowflake was still a surprise.

Roxy sighed and hunched her shoulders up higher as she stood outside of the school. Her coat was already zipped up to her neck, but her scarf had been left behind that morning. It wasn't supposed to snow today, or even really be this cold. In fact, the morning had been warmer than it was now. What happened to the lifeless sunshine that had lit her walk to school? She missed it now.

She started to pull out her phone to see if she couldn't get a hold of someone to give her a ride (seriously, sometimes this walking thing really sucked), when there was a sudden flash of purple and gray in front of her eyes. Roxy blinked rapidly as the fabric fell around her neck and was tucked in, and she looked around to find the mysterious benefactor, but he was already walking away, one hand lifted in the air in a small wave before he climbed into a car that took off as soon as the door was shut.

Roxy remained on the sidewalk for some time after that, clutching the scarf against her face as she stared at the spot where the car took off from. It had been a troll, she knew that much. All she really had to go on were the shape of his horns, an image that she was going to try to hold on to the best that she could. She put her phone back into her pocket again and pressed a small, private smile into the scarf around her neck. Maybe walking home today wouldn't be so bad after all.

\---

"So he just... gave you his scarf."

"Yep."

"Without saying hi or giving you his name or anything. He just wrapped his scarf around you and got in a car and took off."

"That's what I'm sayin'."

"Roxy, you better watch yourself. You might have a stalker to contend with!"

"Janey, please. If he was a stalker, he probably would've pushed me into the car with him. Think about it."

The lunch room was overcrowded and over-loud as usual, so much so that even a private conversation didn't feel very private at all. In fact, when the girls were joined by the other half of their little foursome, the boys were able to jump right in to the conversation, which just went to show how loud they had been speaking already.

"You got a stalker, Rox? Need me to call him out by the bike racks after school and rough him up a bit.?" Jake lifted his hands in a standard 'I'm totally going to punch something' position and gave the air a jab, to which Roxy just rolled her eyes.

"Jake, no. Down by. If I need my attack dog to go sniff him out I'll let ya know. But for reals, you guys, it's no big. It's just a scarf. Not like it was laced with anthrax or nothin'. I'm still standin' and everything."

"And is this the article of clothing in question?" Dirk held up a bit of purple and gray, the end of which had been poking out of the side of Roxy's bag. Embarrassment flashed across her face and she reached out to snatch it from his hand so that she could stuff it back into her bag. "Why're you carrying that raggedy thing around? Hoping to bump into him?"

"Maybe. He might want it back, ya know?"

Jake was the first one to grin and he leaned across the table in order to glance around at the others with a conspiratorial grin. "Why, friends, I do believe our Roxy has been struck smitten by this act of chivalry. Look at her, she's turning into a tomato."

Roxy shoved her tray away and stood up from the table so that she could swing her bag over her shoulder. She gave the table a one fingered salute as she huffed off. "You all suck sweaty man balls," was all that was heard as she left.

\---

Okay, so maybe she found herself more than a little bit attached to the stupid scarf that the mysterious troll boy had wrapped around her. It was warm and comforting and Roxy had spent the rest of the night wearing it before she finally drifted to sleep with it around her neck. She hadn't mentioned any of that to her friends, though; Dirk was the only one she knew would honestly taunt her about it, but she didn't need Jane's worried eyes or Jake's eyebrow wiggling following her wherever she went.

She sighed and leaned back in her desk chair as she waited for the clock to tick down and for the class to actually start. Literature wasn't exactly a strong suit of hers. Well, okay, no, that wasn't entirely true. Literature that didn't have anything to do with wizards and awesome magical adventures weren't a strong suit of hers. If she had to read another novel about a dude going crazy in the middle of Africa she was pretty sure she was going to throw the book right out of the god damn window. 

Roxy pulled the latest "masterpiece" they were currently reading in the class (this Rodion guy sure was full of himself) out of her bag and sat staring at the cover for a good long while, imagining all of the ways that she could coerce Dirk into defacing it for her. It would surely be better with more horses everywhere, right? Roxy mulled this over, almost missing something the teacher was saying up at the front of the class.

Bored with imagining rampaging horses proclaiming themselves more evolved than men and capable with getting away with murder, Roxy finally lifted her gaze from the cover of the book and sat, frozen, as she stared now toward the front of the class.

"Class, new transfer student. New transfer student, class. Introduce yourself and go take a seat, we'll be starting in a few moments."

The troll turned to look out across the faces that were pretending to be interested in what he had to say. Roxy watched as a scowl settled across his face and he hunched his shoulders up, as if wishing he could just let his sweater swallow him up instead of standing there like a fool. But there was no doubt in Roxy's mind that this was the same troll. It had to be. She wouldn't forget the shape of his horns, not over the course of a day.

"Eridan Ampora," he finally muttered as he spoke more into his sweater than he did to the class itself. His voice was muffled because of the fabric, but Roxy thought it was _adorable_. There was a slight nasal quality to it, like being here was beneath him, but it had a certain amount of charm. And his _fins_. Roxy hadn't noticed those yesterday. She had been too distracted by the sudden scarf to actually take much notice of anything, really. But the fins let her know more about him than anything else.

Everyone knew that a troll with fins was something like... royalty, almost, amongst the trolls. Not many humans understood their complex and intricate caste system very well, and most thought it was pretty stupid to begin with, but everyone knew that fins meant that a troll was born into better standing than most, just by their virtue alone. Roxy wanted to touch them. She wanted to see what they would feel like. Would it be like touching a fish: cold and wet and maybe a little slimy? Or would it just be like touching an ear?

Roxy's eyes followed Eridan as he moved through the classroom to take a seat. The only empty one available was diagonally in front of her: not the most convenient location for her to be able to bother him quietly in the middle of class. Tomorrow, she'd have to try to get it settled so that she was in a more prime location relative to him. Directly behind him would be ideal, but next to him would also be acceptable. Being in front of him wouldn't do her much good at all; too much turning around just to ask a question, whereas if she were behind him he could just answer her while still paying attention to the board.

So intent was her focus that she didn't notice he had turned around to look at her. It wasn't until she could feel the ire in his stare that her concentration snapped. The look he gave her wasn't something he would expect from someone who just the day before had given up a scarf to a girl who was cold and still needed to walk home. No, the look he gave her now was one of pure condescension. _Stop staring at me, peasant._ It was almost like she could hear the nasal intonation of the statement leaving his voice.

Roxy dropped her gaze almost immediately and didn't lift it again after that. She set about rewriting passages in the book in front of her instead, adding more horses and robots to it so that she could give it to Dirk later for a fuller rewrite, complete with ridiculous artwork. The whole process made her feel immensely better, and by the end of the class period she felt significantly less crappy about the situation with the new troll in school.

She picked up her bag at the end of the class period and was just in the process of swinging it over her shoulder when she heard a voice behind her.

"I beliewe you hawe my scarf."


	2. Chapter 2

"'Scuse me?" Roxy remained frozen in space, her bag halfway to being over her shoulder, as she turned around to look at Eridan, an eyebrow raised in absolute disbelief. _Sure_ , of course she had his scarf, but that didn't mean he had to go and be so rude about it. Who the hell did this guy think he was, anyway? She finally shifted the hold on her bag and let it settle fully on her shoulder so that she could fold her arms over her chest as she looked at him. "What was that?"

"I said," Eridan started with an edge of irritation in his voice that made the nasal tone significantly less adorable than it had been when she first heard it an hour ago, "I beliewe you hawe my scarf. It's grey and purple. You all might look the same to me, but I hawe a pretty good memory w-when it comes to me giwing my scarf aw-way to someone."

Roxy finally shrugged and adjusted her strap before she turned away with an offhand wave as she put on an air of absolute indifference. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Ampwhatever. No scarves here. This is a scarf free zone. Sorry."

"The end of it is stickin' out of your bag." Roxy was only two steps toward the door before the voice hit her again and she stopped, letting out a string of mental curses that would make a sailor blush, and they were all aimed at Dirk for having dragged the scarf out of her bag at all in the first place. She hoped against hope that, somewhere, his ears were ringing so loud that they were about to start bleeding.

She sighed and swung her bag around to drop it on top of a desk so that she could unzip it and pull the strip of warm fabric out. Roxy lifted it up and examined it for a few moments while she ignored Eridan's obvious advance to come and reclaim it from her. But before his hand could reach out and take it, she promptly shoved the entirety of the scarf back into her bag again and zipped it back up so that she could swing it back over her shoulder. "Nope, no scarf belonging to any hipster trolls here. Just a scarf that is totally one hundred percent Lalonde owned. Sorry, sweet fins. You'll have to try some other sweet-ass blonde babe."

Roxy cast Eridan a wink and turned to promptly walk out of the class. There was a small little hop in her step as she walked along; the look that was on his face as she left was easily one of the greatest things that she had ever seen in her life.

She was probably going to pay for it later, but for right now, Roxy reveled in her victory.

\---

Even before she had finished her story, Roxy knew that she was going to be getting an earful of it from Jane. There was just this _look_ that Jane had to her sometimes that let her know that a Serious Talking To was about to take place, and Roxy sort of wished she could abscond before the conversation even started. But there was no way to just leave when she was in her own home already, and Jane sat at the other end of her bed, a book for class in her lap.

Jane sighed. _Oh crap,_ was the first thought across Roxy's mind, and she immediately shifted herself into a more comfortable position. There was a good chance they were going to be here a while if she started this all off with a _sigh_. Roxy curled her arms underneath her pillow after she fluffed it up and placed her head on it, her eyes on the opposite wall. The reaction just made Jane click her tongue, and Roxy couldn't help but giggle a little bit. They just knew each other too well, sometimes.

"You have to give the scarf back to him." So this was how this was going to go down, was it? Roxy sighed in return, mostly mocking her friend's telltale sign of _not having it_ , and Jane shook her head. "I'm serious, Roxy. You can't just keep it, if he wants it back. It's rude and basically stealing. Why do you even want to keep it, anyway? It's not like you know him. And it's all worn out. If you want a scarf, I could make you a nice new one that looks just like it." Jane sat with the scarf in her hands so that she could examine it closer. She couldn't help but frown at it; it was shoddy work that put this thing together.

Roxy groaned and rolled onto her stomach so that she could bury her face, and her frustrations, into the pillow, at least for a moment. She rolled back onto her side again so that she could look at Jane and she just shook her head. "Nuh-uh, Janey. The scarf is mine now. Property of RoLal. If you wanna knit me something, you could knit my name into the end of the scarf or something. That is some grade-A Lalonde property and his royal fishness ain't getting it back. If he didn't want me to keep it, he shouldn't have given it to me in the first place." Roxy reached out and promptly snatched the scarf out of Jane's hands so that she could fold it up and put it on the stand next to her table.

It was hard to ignore the incredulous and quizzical look that crossed Jane's face as she stared at Roxy. Her eyes flitted back and forth between her friend and the scarf and another sigh left her. "Roxy, really. Maybe the scarf is important to him. It looks handmade. What if like... his grandmother made it for him, and now it's the only thing he has left of hers to keep her memory alive? Wouldn't you feel awful holding on to it that way?"

In truth, she would. But this was no longer about morality or right and wrong. This was about Roxy being a selfish teenage girl and wanting to keep a hold of something that had been offered to her by a complete stranger. Roxy let her gaze flit to the scarf and she sucked in a small breath before she finally shook her head. "Nope. If it was so important, he shouldn't've let it go. Now if he actually told me that was the case, sure, I'd totes think about giving it back to him. Until then, it's mine, and there's nothing you or anyone can say that'll make me give it back to him. In fact, I think I'm gonna start incorporating it into my outfits. It's cold like all the damn time now. No one'll think twice about me wearing a scarf."

Roxy sat up on her bed and reached out for the scarf so that she could wrap it around her neck a few times. She threw one end of it over her shoulder in a dramatic fashion and immediately flopped back onto the bed again. Her eyes were on Jane now, and she tried to give her her best 'I dare you to say something now' look that she could muster.

It apparently seemed to work--or Jane just decided to give up, Roxy isn't sure which--because her friend just shakes her head and cracks her book back open again before she leaned back against the wall. It seemed as though the topic was dropped, at least for the time being. That made two victories for Roxy Lalonde that day, which really just meant even more self-satisfaction descended upon her. Roxy grinned and sat up on the bed herself, assuming a similar position as she opened her own copy of the same book. "Alright, Janey. Time to school you on some of this math shit. You ready?"

After their study session was over, Roxy saw Jane off and then promptly returned to her room before her mom got home from work. There was going to be no explaining to her that she had decided to keep some strange troll's scarf that she had been randomly given. She threw the deadbolt on her door behind her and immediately found herself sitting in front of her computer, chat client open. Several windows popped open at once, and Roxy went through each one of them in turn.

Jane was still offline, which was natural. It would take her a little bit to get home, anyway. But Jake's green text was the first to pop up. Roxy glanced at it briefly before minimizing the window. She could get back to him and his questions about whatever assignment he was having trouble with later. If Dirk hadn't already helped him out with it, it was probably something for his computer class. In fact, Dirk's IM had a message warning her that Jake was undoubtedly going to be pestering her any moment for her help. A small smile worked its way across Roxy's face as she put her fingers to the keyboard to let him know that Jake had, in fact, already done so. And that the issue was undoubtedly related to PEBKAC. There was a silent internet high-five to herself as she continued to cycle through her messages.

There was a name in her window that she didn't recognize. Roxy spent a fair amount of time staring at the little "caligulasAquarium is typing a message..." for a good long while before whatever it was the person was typing finally popped up on to the screen. The color registered in her mind first, and then the words and Roxy nearly fell out of her chair as a laughing fit hit her. A nearly literal ROFL, if you will. She could not believe the sheer audacity of this guy. Like, really, what was his _problem_?

caligulasAquarium: i am not goin to tell you again  
caligulasAquarium: i wwant you to return my scarf to me tomorroww  
caligulasAquarium: no jokin around this time  
caligulasAquarium: i wwant it back  
caligulasAquarium: if you couldnt figure it out this is eridan

It was a good ten minutes before Roxy could even gather herself up enough to actually go help Jake with his problems.


	3. Chapter 3

Unfortunately for Eridan, he had demanded his scarf back on a day that neither of them was going to be in school. Or, at least, they shouldn't be, not unless he was the kind of nerd to go to school on a weekend. He sort of looked the part. Like maybe he was the kind of guy whose only friends were books. They understood him, man. They knew where he was coming from. Either way, Saturday wasn't a day that he was going to have his item returned to him. Not that Roxy had any plans to return it to him at _any_ point, but there was no need to go and make that so obvious to him already--though if he was actually smart, he would have realized it by now.

Jane had long ago gotten Roxy into the habit of getting as much weekend homework done on Friday night as possible, so that the weekend could actually be used for going out and having a little bit of fun. Of course, the types of fun that both of the girls liked were of very different varieties. Jane would likely spend the better part of her morning baking delicious cookies to bring to everyone in their little group on Monday. She would tell them all to make them last, that there wouldn't be any more until next week, but they'd all be gone by the end of the school day. Sometimes, if they were being particularly stingy, one of them may have one left over. That wasn't usually the case.

Roxy, however, preferred to experience a more stereotypical high school life. There was going to be a party that night somewhere, she was sure of it. There was always a party _somewhere_. It was just a matter of finding out who was hosting the shindig that week. Roxy's place was out: her mom was actually home for a while now, her book tour having ended a month ago. She went in to her office job that she didn't need whenever she was home, like some sort of giant fuck you to the absurd amount of money her books made, and Roxy could never figure out why. She supposed it made her mom happy, somehow. Maybe if she didn't go, she'd just sit around the house and go stir crazy. She did like to talk about how they were both meant for something bigger than the life that they were living.

Personally, Roxy didn't see how that could be possible. Her life was _fantastic_ , thank you very much. She had three of the greatest friends that anyone could ever ask for, even if their relationship was a little strange to onlookers. They were a pretty eclectic group of friends, to say the least.

If someone thought about what a 1950s housewife was, Jane would fit the bill to a T. She was the type to stay home baking for everyone whenever she had the chance. The dresses she wore were always very modest, often of a lovely shade of pale blue, and Roxy was pretty sure that she had a few stashed away somewhere that even had polka-dots on them. And though Roxy had never caught Jane in the act herself, she liked to believe that her friend had a tendency toward vacuuming the house while wearing sensible heels and a pearl necklace. Jane always denied it, but there was something to the vehemence in her words that made Roxy think she was being a big liar liar pants on fire.

Jake was a piece of work, too. He lived at home with only his grandma, a very sweet old woman whose stories were so far out there that you knew they had to be fictional, but she told them with such conviction that you could almost believe that they were real, and that she had really lived them. It was easy to see, then, how Jake became the way he did. He loved, more than anything, a good adventure. If there were ever a moment when one of them would proclaim there was nothing to do, Jake would be the first to jump up and mention this fantastic abandoned building that he had found that just begged to be explored. Or, alternatively, he would suggest a terrible movie that would cause each of them to groan and throw a pillow at his head.

And then there was Dirk. Though Jane was undeniably Roxy's best friend, Dirk was the one that she felt the closest to out of all of them. He understood better than the others what it was like to always be alone. It was just him and his older brother against the world, but just like Roxy's mom, Dirk's brother was hardly ever around to actually pay attention to what his young charge was doing with his life. He was some sort of self-made man, and Dirk liked to casually talk about how his movies were making waves all around the world, but Roxy had never seen one of them herself. Still, she didn't doubt it; she'd never doubted a word Dirk had said in their lives. Stoic to the point of being infuriating, Dirk wasn't a liar. He may not tell the entire truth, but there was nothing that came out of his mouth that couldn't be believed. If he omitted something, it was only because he felt it best that certain details not be divulged.

Roxy loved each and every one of them. And, at different points in their friendships, that love had been quite literal. Jake had been her first crush when they were nearing the end of elementary school. But then, to be fair, Jake had been _each_ of their first crushes. Roxy was pretty sure that Jane and Dirk were still at that point, though there just seemed to be some sort of unspoken rule amongst all of them that it was not something to be discussed. Ever. After Jake, Roxy had found herself gravitating toward Jane. It seemed logical to her. Best friends made for the best significant others, right? But that had been short-lived. Roxy just liked the boys too much for it to be a thing.

Dirk, however. Dirk hurt. They had tried something, once upon a summer, when Jake and his grandmother went traveling (she was a spry old woman), and Jane and her father went south to visit family. It had been just the two of them for three long months, and Roxy had put her all into making it work. It was just unfortunate that Dirk wasn't as into as she was. Sure, the kisses had been hot, the touches were sweet, but in the end, she just didn't do it for him.

She resented him for it a little bit, but she couldn't fault him for how he felt. Sometimes, a friend is just a friend.

But none of those friends ever understood Roxy's need to go out and just socialize. They only had so many years to be teenagers and make awful, horrible mistakes, and Roxy wanted to make as many of them as she could before she got to an age where people expected better out of her. This was why she found herself, as soon as she crawled out of bed at one in the afternoon, at her computer in order to dig through all of the social networking sites to find out where the party was going to be that evening. Roxy was never turned down at a party, even the ones she wasn't specifically invited to her. There was a life that Roxy brought to every party she went to that no one could overlook.

Of course, it could also be because she was a pretty damn fun drunk to be around. That was certainly a possibility.

Once Roxy found out where the that night's best party was going to be held, she promptly spent the next four hours picking out the perfect outfit. The important thing to remember was that she needed something that would go along with her new scarf look. Even if he wasn't going to be there--she highly doubted it, anyway--she had to make sure to establish that Roxy Lalonde was now a scarf-wearer, and what better opportunity to display the new look than at a party where a good portion of the school (or at least those who mattered) would see her?

Style and comfort were key here. She didn't want to show up to the party looking like an over--or under--dressed asshole who doesn't know what the hell they're doing. Turtle necks and sweaters were out. She was already going to be warm from the scarf itself, which left one of her t-shirts. The one with the cat was absolutely perfect. Paired up with a skirt and some leggings and the right boots and she was golden. Roxy wrapped the scarf around her neck and gave herself a few quick glances in the mirror before she finally nodded. Yes, this would be perfect.

Five o'clock meant an early dinner for her, and then a lot of lounging around and beating losers online at some games while she waited for the right time to go. Fashionably late was the only way to go. When the clock finally struck eight, Roxy unrolled herself from the couch to get ready and headed out the door without so much as a word to her mother about where she was going.

By the time she got to the party--thrown by one of the trolls in her biology class, she wasn't actually sure which one--it was already in full swing. Roxy exchanged pleasant greetings with more than one person as she worked her way through the crowd toward the drink station. There was no point in waiting around. Roxy hated to be one of the last ones to get drunk; it was easier to forget about how idiotic she and everyone else was being if she was already three sheets to the wind before it started.

Roxy was on her third drink and in the middle of a very heated discussion over the latest FPS game to be released with a friend of hers when she felt the tap on her shoulder. She turned around to find a small female troll beaming up at her, all smiles and jewelry and wow that was a lot of hair that she had. And then Roxy remembered: this was Feferi, and this party happened to be one that she was throwing.

"Hey, there!" She shouted over the music, leaning in as close to Roxy as she could so that she could be heard without getting so close that it became intrusive. "Roxy, right? I was just wondering, where did you get that adorabubble scarf?"

Roxy blinked and glanced down at the scarf dangling from her neck and she toyed with an end of it. "Oh, around. Why?"

"Whale, it's just that a friend of mine has one exactly like it! But he always goes on and on about how it's his favorite accessory and he wouldn't even ever let me borrow it! Acshelly, I'm kinda throwing this party for him. He just got here, you sea, and I wanted him to try and meet some more people. Oh! There he is now!"

An unsettling feeling wrapped itself up in Roxy's stomach. She knew who was going to be behind her before she even turned around to look. How in the _hell_ did this guy keep winding up in the same space she did? Roxy took a deep breath and slowly turned to face him. Her lips curled into a slow smile when recognition dawned across his sourpuss of a face.

"Eridan! There you are. Cod, I've been looking all over for you. This is Roxy! I was just telling her that I really liked her scarf 'cause it reminds me of the one you have and--Eridan? Are you alright?"

The look he gave Roxy could have peeled paint from the walls, there was so much venom behind it, and Roxy just smiled on as she leaned in toward him. "Sweet fins! Who'd've thought we'd meet up like this at a party, huh? Havin' fun?"

Eridan nearly _hissed_ as he reached out to grab a hold of Roxy's wrist before he dragged her through the crowd and away from an incredibly confused Feferi.


	4. Chapter 4

The way that Eridan moved through the crowd and then through the house itself led Roxy to believe that he had been here before, which was sort of strange to her. If he and Feferi really were old friends, then that sort of raised a lot of questions in her mind all at once. How did they meet? Where has he been all this time if he only showed up now? Where in the seven hells was he actually taking her? He moved them away from the party that much was obvious to her. The music was quieter, and the only people in this part of the house were probably heading either to or from the bathroom.

Roxy could have broken his hold on her wrist. Easily, if the loose way he had his fingers wrapped around her were any sort of indication. It wasn't the strongest grip in the world, but Roxy had a feeling that it was entirely on purpose. Trolls were inherently stronger than humans. Even the weakest among them were on par with a body builder. This was less him kidnapping her, then, and more him just rudely asking her to follow along without actually saying the words out loud. She would have followed him, though. Why not? What was he going to do in the home of a friend of his?

It wasn't until he had elbowed out door and in to the back yard that he finally stopped walking. Roxy watched as his eyes swept from one side of the yard to the other, as if to make sure that there was no one else out here, and stomped the two of them over to a bench that sat on the edge of a small pond. Eridan turned to face Roxy in that moment, released her wrist from his grasp so that he could put both of his hands on her shoulders, and pushed down so that she sat on the bench. Roxy blinked a couple of times and then raised an eyebrow as she looked up at him. "You coulda just asked me to sit, y'know." Maybe he needed a book on manners or something.

Eridan cast a glance down at her, and Roxy had to wonder if he actually saw her or if he simply looked right through her. It certainly felt like it, anyway. Like she had been seen but not _seen_ , if that made any sort of sense to anyone outside of her own head. Roxy frowned and lowered her gaze again as she gripped the edge of the bench. It was fun to tease and everything, but if she would continue to be met with nothing but icy stares and condescending glances, it was going to get old really fast. She went to stand up again and finally take off, as he was obviously in no mood to actually listen to her, when she glanced back up again.

There, for a brief moment in time, she had witnessed softness to his gaze that she hadn't seen before. Maybe that was the type of look he had given to her when he handed over the scarf in the first place. Even if it wasn't, just that glance was enough to show her that there was something to the cold exterior he liked to project. As soon as he noticed that she had looked at him again his eyes shifted, hardened back to a fine point again, and he turned to face her head on with his arms folded across his chest.

_Oh, boy._ Roxy thought. _Here it comes. That looks like a Janey lecture face right there._

Instead, what Eridan did was let out a sigh that sounded like it came from the very tips of his toes and he promptly flung himself onto the bench next to her. All of the bravado and false airs dissipated from him in an instant and Roxy was left to look upon a young troll who carried himself far too rigidly. She didn't know why, she wasn't about to ask why, but she couldn't help but feel something from him that was strangely familiar.

Still, it didn't excuse his bizarre behavior, and Roxy wanted some answers out of him, and she wanted them now--or as soon as humanly possible.

"So, hey. Sweet fins. What's with the show? I was havin' myself a good ol' time in there, gettin' my drink on, socializin' it up, getting the RoLal name out there in the circle, and you came along to snag me and ruin my flow. I had a totally awesome flow going. I was the fuckin' Rio Grande in there-- _what_." Roxy stopped mid-rant when he turned an irritated eye on her, and she crossed her arms in front of her to give him a look back. "Don't gimme that shit. You're the one who dragged me out here. The hell do you want?"

Eridan finally shifted to sit up straighter again, and Roxy was struck by the fact that despite his obvious failings, he really did have something of a regal presence to him. This was a troll who had grown up with the finer things in life and next to no troubles, that much was obvious. Roxy really did wonder sometimes just how much different it was for those living at the higher end of the troll spectrum from those living at the other end. Roxy had never personally known enough trolls to actually ask them.

"I just w-wanted to know-w w-why you are w-wearin my scarf out like you ow-wn it." Eridan's eyes flitted down from Roxy's face to her neck and the scarf still wrapped around it, and Roxy lifted a hand to it to hold on as if he would reach out and snag it off of her without any preamble. Actually, at this point, she really wouldn't have put it past him.

"Do you like it?" She asked instead as she pushed herself up from the bench to give a little twirl in front of him. "I took me way longer to put together a party outfit to really go with it. It's just so damned soft and, shit, it's gettin' cold out here. Made sense to me." Roxy brought her hands up again and lifted an edge of the scarf up to cover her mouth so that she could grin at him in secret.

"But w-why _mine?_ Don't you hawe any other scarwes you could w-wear?" Eridan stood up as well, and Roxy wasn't sure if was her eyes playing tricks on her or what, but it definitely looked like the fins on either side of his face had flared in irritation. It was hard for her to keep her composure after she saw something like that, especially since the alcohol had finally started to really hit her system, but she somehow managed to keep herself both laugh-free and on her feet. "W-why w-won't you giwe it back to me already? I'we asked."

Roxy shrugged and took a couple of steps backwards. She opened her mouth to say something when the snowflake fell in her gaze, and she finally noticed for the first time just how cold it was outside. So distracted had she been about where he was taking her that Roxy had completely forgotten that they _were_ in winter. She lifted her gaze toward the sky and watched as the snowflakes started to fall a little bit faster, and she pulled the scarf down to tip back her head and open her mouth so that she could catch a flake on the tip of her tongue.

"I like it," she finally said as she lowered her head again. The motion caused her to tilt to the side a little, but she managed to catch herself before she tumbled over completely. "It's soft 'n warm 'n besides you gave it to me. If you wanted to keep it so badly why didn't you just take it with you I would'a been perfectly fine walkin' home on my own without it y'know." Eridan seemed closer to her somehow, and her brain worked backwards to realize that he had stepped forward when she tilted, a hand out as if he would catch her should she start to fall.

"You looked miserable an' I didn't w-wanna liwe w-with the guilt of leavin' a pink fleshed human girl freezin' in the snow." A statement that just seemed ironic and positively ludicrous in the moment, given the fact that they were standing outside without jackets on as snow started to fall again. Or well, it was far more uncomfortable for Roxy than it had to be for him. At least Eridan had a sweater on.

"Well, I didn't freeze, now, did I? And 'm not freezin' now. So thanks for that, I guess. But if you don't mind, I think I'm gonna go ahead and just hold on to the scarf for a little bit longer. And by a little bit longer I mean if I ever feel like giving it back to you, you'll get it then and no sooner, sweet fins. I told you before, it's now Lalonde property. Now if you don't mind, I've got a party to get back to." Roxy turned on her heel and went to take a step, but the abrupt turn she had taken threw her now drunk ass off balance and she started to fall backwards.

Roxy made a noise of surprise and squeezed her eyes shut as she braced for an impact with the ground that never came. Instead, surprisingly warm and strong hands caught her and kept her from falling completely. It wasn't until she was entirely sure that she wasn't actually going to keep going that she opened her eyes. There was a snowflake stuck to her lashes that blurred her vision, just a little, but it didn't matter. She could see enough to see Eridan's face hovering over hers with a look of concern. When he saw her eyes open and on him, it turned into one of disgust--false, she knew now, it was getting easier to tell--before he snorted and looked away. "You're drunk."

"An' you're a god damn genius." Roxy muttered in return, ire prickling at the back of her head. Why did he have to go and ruin a moment like that? It was the kind of thing that shitty romance novels were made out of.

"Oh! Shorey, I didn't mean to-- I mean, I'm not interrupting somefin, am I?" Roxy turned her head toward the new voice, only to find Feferi standing in the doorframe, barely visible from the light shining behind her. "You were just gone so long I had to come and make shore you didn't run off somewhere! Eridan, come back inside, I have some friends I want you to meet!" Feferi hesitated for a moment, and Roxy was shore--er, sure--that she had been regarded with a look of confusion, before the small troll disappeared back into her house again.

Eridan righted Roxy as soon as Feferi had gone and he straightened himself up before brushing by her to head back into the house again without a word to her or even a glance over his shoulder to make sure that she was actually on her feet again.

Roxy pursed her lips together for a moment as she watched his retreating form. Everything suddenly felt a lot colder than it had just a moment before, and Roxy didn't really feel like partying anymore. Maybe she would do the sensible thing and go ahead and go home early tonight. As she went inside to gather her things she couldn't help but continue to wonder just _what_ that had been all about.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There be goodies in this chapter.

A low whistle cut across the small room in an attempt to gather the other occupant's attention. "Yo. Rox. RoLal. R to the L-a-londe. Are you paying any attention to anything at all? Because I don't think you are." There was a moment of brief silence before something finally flew across the room (a plushed something or other; it looked ridiculous) to smack into the wall beside the blonde's head. " _Roxy_. Are you thinking about buying real estate in space or something because that's where you're staring."

Roxy finally blinked and lifted her head with a shake so that she could stare across the room at Dirk. Had he been trying to get her attention? What in the hell could he possibly want from her right now? She turned her head from one side to the other in an attempt to crack it as she stretched before she settled back against the wall again. "What is it?"

Dirk snorted and turned back to his work: he was elbow deep in some sort of contraption or another, Roxy wasn't entirely sure what he was working on this time. The last time she watched him build something, he had made himself a robot to have a conversation with. It was still in its testing stages, but Roxy couldn't help but think it was a little bit sad. "Shit, Rox, you are way the hell out of it. Don't tell me you're still hung over or something. I mean, you _did_ hit up the party at the Peixes place last night, right? Have you ever even had a hang over?"

"Of course I've had a hang over what in the hell does that have to do with anything?" There was more bite in Roxy's tone than she intended for there to be, but the question with its hidden accusation was out there in the air anyway. She huffed and slide down further against the wall, her legs stretched out in front of her and her arms folded loosely across her stomach.

A frown slowly creased across Dirk's face as he turned his head to look at her again. Finally, he just raised a simple eyebrow, and he didn't have to have his glasses off for Roxy to feel the judging stare that he had focused on her in that moment. "I was just pointing out that you're not you today. I'd ask if something happened last night but... to be perfectly honest, I don't really care. But you obviously came over here for a reason." Dirk reached off to his side to pick up a screwdriver before he plunged his hand back into the cavity of his project. Roxy had a brief distracted moment as she watched him work. It was always sort of really adorable: she didn't think Dirk ever noticed it, but he tended to stick his tongue out of the corner of his mouth when he really started to get in to his work.

"It's nothing, really," she finally muttered, though the way she couldn't bring herself to look at him spoke volumes. There was obviously something wrong, and she knew that she exuded 'I have a problem I want to talk about' vibes. The problem was, she didn't actually know how to set about talking about them.

Roxy pursed her lips together and finally leaned forward. She rested her elbows on her knees and placed her chin in her hand before, finally, she blurted out, "I'm dateable, right? Like, if you weren't way too into Jake to be into a class A hottie like me, would we still be doing the whole boyfriend and girlfriend thing?"

Well, whatever Dirk had expected Roxy to say, that obviously wasn't it. His hand slipped in what he was doing and his screwdriver flew from his hand, which now had scrapes across the knuckles from where he had bumped them against bits of metal. Dirk scowled as he reached for a towel to wipe his hand off before he looked at her with something along the lines of contempt. "Where in the hell is this coming from?"

A shrug was his answer and Roxy shifted so that she sat on her knees instead. "I was just wondering. I mean, that fine piece of English ass was why we didn't work out, right? I'm just making sure that it wasn't something I did and that if I were to, say, maybe want to pursue something with some other stud, that my advances would be welcome."

Dirk let out a sigh that came from the very depths of his soul and he turned to fully face her. "Rox, you know I'm about as good at these pep talks as Jane is at pretending she isn't judging everything we do. But, yeah, being into that 'fine piece of English ass' is pretty much the entirety of why we broke up."

"Pretty much?" Roxy frowned and folded her arms over her chest as she leveled her gaze on to him.

"Well, I mean... not gonna lie, I sort of hated it when you would talk about other people when you were with me. It's like your focus was never really there. So I figured, well, she's obviously not as in to me as she wants to be, and I'm not as in to her as I want to be, so this would probably work better as a friend thing." Dirk shrugged and leaned back on his hands as Roxy sat back to mull this over.

"So, what. Like I was emotionally cheating on you or something?"

"Nothing so god damn corny and emotional. It just didn't work for us, Rox. That's all. Now if you don't mi--what are you doing?"

Roxy had leaned forward on to her hands and crawled across the space between them in order to settle herself onto his lap, and she just stared at him for a short while with her hands against his chest. "So, here's a question then. We're both still stupidly, desperately lonely, right?" The answer she got was Dirk's impassive stare, so Roxy just shook her head and pressed forward. "Would it be weird if, when the stupidly, desperately lonely feelings hit max altitude, I came over and asked for some Strider smooches? Because I could really go for someone holding me like I'm the only thing they wanna touch in this moment."

Dirk continued to stare at her for a few moments before he let out a breath and lifted his hands so that he could remove his glasses and set them aside. It was a good sign. Roxy had often complained that his glasses got in the way of their make outs, and if he was taking them off now, that had to be good, right? "You better not make a habit of this," he muttered, even as he tipped her head forward to place his mouth against her throat. He was literally going straight for the jugular.

Roxy shared a private smile with the air as she tilted her head to the side in order to open up the long pale column of her throat so that he had more room to maneuver. If history told her anything, Roxy knew that she was going to have a fun time coming up with excuses as to why she couldn't let her neck be uncovered at any given moment for the next week. When Dirk wanted to leave his mark behind, he made sure it stayed put.

A shiver ran down her spine as she felt teeth graze along her skin, and Roxy let her tongue dart out past her lips in order to wet them. To be honest, there was a part of her that was surprised that Dirk agreed to do this. Had he been feeling some pent up frustrations lately, himself? He _was_ a teenage boy with no discernible outlet for these things, except for his private time during his 40 minute showers in the morning. But one's own hand was nothing compared to the touch of another.

Speaking of touching, Roxy was doing way too much just sitting there and enjoying the sensation of Dirk mimicking a vacuum against her neck. Roxy slid her hands down the front of his shirt until she reached the bottom hem and promptly began to slip them underneath the fabric so that she could touch his skin directly. It was warm against her fingers and she planted her palms flat against his stomach: his wonderful, fantastic stomach that she had spent many a day kissing and nuzzling against. It was just so beautifully flat and hard and nice to the touch. She may or may not have a problem when it comes to the Strider stomach.

Roxy walked her fingers up Dirk's torso, the movement pulling his shirt up, and when she reached his chest she moved her hands so that she could pinch at his nipples directly. The action elicited a sharp intake of breath on Dirk's part and Roxy grinned. Another pinch and Dirk lifted his head away from her neck in order to give her a look that sent heat right through her body. Lack of appropriate chemistry or not, why had they ever let this part of their relationship fall to the wayside? "You're cheating," he finally grumbled, his voice rumbling low in his throat. Roxy was only able to wink back at him in response before she found herself on her back and pressed against the floor.

Dirk sat up long enough to yank his shirt up and over his head before he tossed it off to the side and descended on her again. Her own shirt was tugged up though not off, yanked up only far enough so that he could push her bra up over her chest. There was no telling when his brother would be around, after all, and Dirk without his shirt on was no problem. Roxy, on the other hand, would need to be able to cover up a little bit faster than he would.

He leaned down once all of the obnoxious fabric was out of the way and took the pert nipple of one breast into his mouth. Roxy let out a sigh of pleasure and let her head fall back against the floor as he assaulted the taut bud in his mouth with his tongue. He swirled it around in quick circles before he took it between his teeth to add a sweet sharp pain that sent another bolt of heat right through her. Roxy responded to him with a moan and she brought one of her hands up to tangle it into his hair, mussing the perfectly styled strands.

She was just getting into a nice flow of him assaulting her chest when he shifted and settled himself in between her legs. A thrill ran through her, but Roxy didn't hear the sound of a belt buckle being released. All she felt was her skirt being flipped up before he was up against her, _grinding_ on her, with the both of them still fully clothed from the waist down.

To say she was a little disappointed would be an understatement.

But then he starts to really press up against her in earnest, and Roxy experienced a different kind of pleasure than she had before. It was rough, first of all; his jeans added an interesting texture against her heat that was unusual but strangely sexy as all hell. She could feel him through his jeans, hard and straining, and she couldn't help but wonder just how uncomfortable it was for him to do this without letting himself out of his pants.

Dirk's hands slid down her sides to plant firmly on her ass and she found her hips being lifted up off of the floor so that Dirk could really start to rock against her with a purpose. The pressure started to build inside of Roxy, and she found herself scrabbling at the floor in an attempt to stabilize herself as he continued to grind himself up against her panties. Even his breath had started to come out in short gasps, and she looked up at him to find his eyes squeezed shut and his head bowed forward.

And then suddenly grey skin and lightning shaped horns appeared in Roxy's vision and she cried out as her orgasm rocked her body. She was lifted up off of the floor enough at this point that she was almost supported by nothing but her shoulders and her entire body shook as wave after wave of pleasure crashed through her body. Dirk's own climax was much quieter, nothing but a soft grunt, but the way his hips shuddered against her let him know that it was just as fine for him as it had been for her.

He slowly lowered her back down to the floor again and Roxy laid there for a good five minutes just reveling in the aftershocks, completely ignorant as Dirk unceremoniously changed himself with her still lying there in a daze. It took her a while but she eventually sat up and started to straighten herself out before she pushed herself up on shaky legs. Dirk had replaced his glasses onto his face and was already back to his work by the time she was fully upright again.

"Right. Well. I think that I'm just gonna go ahead and... y'know. Go home now." A noncommittal sound left Dirk and Roxy nodded as she turned toward his door, holding on to the knob for support as she leaned down to pick up her things. "I'll see you at school tomorrow." And then Roxy left, shutting the door behind her as she shakily made her way out of his house to head back to his own, trying to ignore the memory of the face that had replaced Dirk's at the height of her pleasure.


	6. Chapter 6

Roxy wasn't sure if she was the only one who felt the tension amongst them or what. Maybe she was just projecting onto the others. Dirk didn't seem to be behaving any differently, and he was even able to look her in the eye when he greeted her that morning. So maybe it didn't concern him as much as it did her, or maybe he was just better at hiding it. Actually, that was probably the case. Dirk had always been better at being completely impassive than the rest of them. Sometimes, she wondered if maybe he'd be happier if he built himself into a robot and let his natural body just disintegrate. He could become the Terminator. That'd be pretty fun.

But the point was, if he had stayed up all night thinking about their encounter earlier that day, he didn't show it. Roxy, for her part, was something of a wreck. The mark he had left on her neck had been darker than normal--or she was just paler than she used to be--and she had had a lot of fun trying to cover it up. So distraught had she been about making sure no one saw it that she had completely forgotten about the scarf that was available to her until her mom had called out that it was cold out and she should wear an extra layer or two. Not that her mom was actually concerned about whether or not Roxy was cold; it was just one of her "motherly duties".

Roxy had immediately gone to grab the scarf after that and wrapped it around her neck; glad to have something on to cover it up without having to sacrifice herself to a turtleneck. She flung one end of it over her shoulder and was out the door before her mom could say anything else at her with her usual flair of perfectly timed condescension. Roxy still had the scarf on when she sat down in her first class, but given who she was, there didn't seem to be anyone who gave it a second glance.

Well, that she had noticed, anyway.

It wasn't until she was between classes that she got the first clue that Dirk really had been thinking about what had happened. He managed to get her cornered as other students scampered by on the way to their classes. He put a finger to Roxy's lips in order to preemptively stop her from saying anything before he slid the finger down to curl around the edge of the scarf. Dirk pulled the fabric back away from her neck to examine the skin, and a light shiver worked its way down her spine as he caressed it for a brief moment before he put the scarf back. "Good," was all he said before he turned around and left again, slipping back into the flow of students to head to his next class.

Roxy wet her lips nervously before she pushed herself away from the wall and stood up straighter. The previous day flitted through her mind again and, honestly, she wanted nothing more than to head to the bathroom to take care of the heat that had suddenly risen within her, but the warning bell knocked her out of it and reminded her that she only had a minute left to get to class, even if learning was the furthest thing from her mind.

She straightened herself up and managed to gather her bearings when she noticed someone staring at her from a little ways down the hallway. Roxy blinked a few times until the sudden realization of who it was hit her like a sack of bricks. _Eridan_. He had witnessed that whole thing, hadn't he? Roxy couldn't figure out what kind of look it was that he was giving her in that moment, but it didn't feel like a very good one. Confused? Maybe... betrayed? She wasn't sure, and the possible answers just made her head spin. What in the hell could he be so upset about? She raised a hand to him to say hello, but he turned and stalked off before she could even get a word out.

_Weird_.

Roxy just shook her head and gathered herself with a slow breath before she continued down the rapidly emptying hallway toward her next class. She'd have time to think of what these encounters meant for her later.

\---

Roxy shut the door behind her and Jane before she threw herself onto her stomach on bed with a quiet groan. The rest of the day had been hell. Eridan seemed to be doing all that he could to avoid even coming into contact with her, she had been unable to look at Dirk without the previous day flashing back to her, and the weirdest part of it all had been Feferi.

Every time she passed the troll in the hallway, Roxy had felt eyes boring into her. The feeling wasn't one of malice or distaste or anything like that, which Roxy would have found perfectly acceptable, really. She could handle strange bouts of jealousy or whatever it was that people felt toward her from time to time. But no, Feferi looked at Roxy with such a curious nature that it made Roxy feel like she was on display in a zoo or a museum or something of that nature. An aquarium, perhaps, given Feferi's status as a fish troll. No matter what way she sliced it, however, the fact of the matter remained that Roxy had found the staring unsettling, to say the least.

It had to have something to do with Eridan, that much she was sure of. Feferi had never so much as given Roxy the time of day before, but now that Eridan was suddenly in the picture--not that Roxy was sure how he actually fit in to it--it was as though Roxy was Curious Specimen Number One. Was Feferi concerned over her friend suddenly having conversations with humans? Or maybe she was just worried that he might be getting in with someone he shouldn't be? Roxy didn't know what it was. Maybe she would have to pull the girl aside tomorrow and find out what all of the staring was about.

There was a light push at her feet that snapped Roxy out of her eternal spiral of confusion and she lifted her legs so that Jane could have a seat on the bed before she promptly dropped them back down again, stretching them out across her friend's lap. Roxy could hear Jane let out a sigh behind her and it made her grin as she gathered her pillow under her chin. There was absolutely no motivation within her to do any sort of work at the moment. Not when her personal life was apparently in such dramatic turmoil.

She could feel Jane settle in and start to do work anyway, ignoring the legs across her lap, and Roxy flopped over onto her back to silently stare at her. And stare. And then stare some more. The silence stretched on for _ages_ \--or about two minutes, who really knew--before Jane finally snapped her book shut and turned her gaze on to Roxy with a raised eyebrow. "What do you want to talk about?"

And this was why they were best friends.

Roxy pulled her legs off of Jane's lap so that she could sit up with them folded instead, and she began to absently toy with a dangling end of the scarf. Her eyes proceeded to dart around the room as she tried to think of a good starting point, but nothing immediate came to her mind. "So... Janey. How was your weekend?" Yes, that seemed like a good launching point. There was clearly nothing misleading about such an innocent question.

Roxy could see the urge on Jane's face to roll her eyes, and she silently applauded her friend for not giving in to the temptation. Good Jane, best friend. "Well, you already ate what I spent my Sunday doing. I guess that new recipe was to your liking. Saturday was spent helping pop around the house, just like it is almost every other Saturday. So I guess that brings us to what _you_ did this weekend." Roxy fell quiet and began fidgeting again, and this finally made Jane turn toward her, her face settled into a serious line. "Roxy. What did you _do_."

Roxy finally fell back against the bed again and covered her face in her hands with a groan. It was all very dramatic, really, and the thought of saying it all out loud made her feel incredibly silly. "Shit, Janey, I don't know. I could've really opened up some doors that prolly shoulda remained closed for like the rest of time. Okay, so, first, there was this party--" And Roxy proceeded to tell Jane everything that had happened Saturday night, from Feferi's inquiry about the scarf to Eridan catching her when she fell and every little detail--that she could remember--in between. Jane remained impassive through it all, and gently prodded Roxy to go on when she stopped. That obviously wasn't the entire story. A boy catching her wouldn't leave her behaving the way that she was.

She had to wonder just how much she should say about what happened between her and Dirk yesterday. Not every detail, clearly; that would just be way too much sharing, even for their best friend relationship. "So yesterday, I went to go hang out with Dirk, like I tend to. Y'know, shoot the breeze, talk about computer shit, things like that. And then the conversation kinda strayed to when we went out for that summer and why we broke up and then one little question lead to another and eventually..." Roxy paused and lifted her hands to remove the scarf around her neck, revealing the bruise left behind by Dirk's mouth.

Jane clucked her tongue before she could stop it and Roxy frowned a little as she leaned back against the wall. "I knew it. It was a bad idea, wasn't it? I mean, at the time it was a really damn _good_ idea. It helped me feel better, anyway. But I'm sorta regretting it now. A little, maybe. But anyway, that's not even the weirdest part. That'd go to what went down at school today."

And then Roxy continued the story, starting with Dirk checking out her neck to make sure the mark was still there (or whatever it was he was doing), and Eridan going out of his way to not notice her, and Feferi's staring. She rubbed the back of her head before she let it fall back against the wall with a quiet thud. "So basically that's been my weekend. One giant pile of awkward confusion after another. I dunno what to think, Janey. Did Dirk enjoy yesterday more than he's letting on, or is he doing his Strider thing and getting under my skin for the fun of it? And what in the actual hell is going on with fin face? Both of 'em, at that."

Jane sat in silence for a moment, and Roxy lifted her head away from the wall to look at her. She had to be coming up with some sort of answer to the dilemma, or at least she was trying to. Finally, she picked her book back up and opened it again to stare down at the pages. "Sounds to me," she started as she turned back to where she needed to be, "that Eridan might be a little jealous of the kind of relationship he thinks you and Dirk might have. Now I am obviously no expert on the subject myself," Roxy snorted; Jane ignored her, "but that would be my guess."

Roxy spent the rest of the evening mulling that over, even long after Jane had left to go home for the night. Maybe she was on to something with this. All of the puzzle pieces put together certainly painted the picture, didn't it? Still, it wasn't as though Eridan actually _knew_ her. He didn't know anything except that she liked to be a tease, since that was all she had shown him at this point.

When she finally went to bed that night, Roxy's dreams were plagued with blond fish trolls wearing ridiculous sunglasses trying to woo her with scarves.


	7. Chapter 7

Roxy had a lot of plans for her Tuesday. A lot of really big, really awesome plans that would in no way fall through in the slightest. They were flawless plans. The best plans she had ever thought of in her life. She was going to see them through to the very end.

Of course, what this actually meant was that Roxy had a vague idea of what she wanted to get done and maybe, somewhere along the way, she would actually do said things. At the very least, she made sure to cover up her neck with a turtleneck today, instead of the scarf. It wouldn't do if she wore it every single day, after all.

Truth be told, there was a lot that she was unsure of, but even more that she was curious about. There were questions she wanted answered, and if they weren't soon, she would probably drive herself crazy trying to figure them out, which would in turn alienate her friends and send her day to day life into an endless spiral of confusion and self-loathing. Or something equally dramatic that would wind up the lyric for some band that panders to the disenfranchised youth.

The most important thing that Roxy wanted to get done was talking to Feferi, and the perfect opportunity came at lunch time. They shared a lunch period, which was a lucky draw that Roxy had not anticipated as she had never really paid attention to who else had lunch at the same time as her outside her circle of friends. Roxy could feel Jane's eyes on her as she glanced back and forth between her lunch on the table in front of her and Feferi across the dining hall. When she finally looked to her friend, Jane nodded her head and gestured with it, silently urging Roxy to go and do what she had in mind.

Roxy sucked in a deep breath and pushed herself up to her feet. Dirk raised an eyebrow at her, and she blithely ignored Jake as he asked where she was headed as she moved with purpose across the hall to where the troll sat. Roxy put a pleasant smile on her face as she reached the table, hovering behind another troll with a double set of horns who was apparently in the middle of a story. "Hey! Feferi, right? Can I steal you away for just a sec?" She felt, suddenly, the weight of several pairs of troll eyes on her and it took all she had to not cast them a look back. What in the hell was their problem?

But Feferi just smiled, as pleasant and at ease as Roxy had ever seen her, and she stood up after taking a drink from her water bottle. "Shore! Acshelly, I'm reely glad you wanna chat. Come on, there's an empty booth of there we can use. Don't worry, guys, I'll be back in just a sec. Save your story, Sollux." Feferi picked up her bag and gestured for Roxy to follow her, which is exactly what she did, eyes boring in to her back as they walked away. She cast a brief look over her shoulder and watched with some satisfaction as they all dropped their gazes and went back to the conversation they were having before she interrupted.

Roxy shifted awkwardly as she settled into the seat across from Feferi and she stared absently down at her hands. She was usually really good about talking to people about anything at all. What was it about this whole situation that suddenly sent her into feeling like a blushing school girl from one of those shows that Dirk liked to watch so much? She took a slow breath and looked up to find Feferi waiting patiently for her to start, and Roxy let out a small laugh at herself. She didn't have anything to worry about with her, did she?

"So, I was just kinda wondering, what was up with all of that staring you were doing yesterday? Like, I didn't have any toilet paper stuck to the bottom of my shoe and I'm pretty sure there wasn't anything on my face. I checked about five times. So I'm just tryin' to figure out what the sudden fascination with me is all about." There, she said it.

She watched as Feferi leaned back in her seat and hummed in thought, her head tipped to the side as she presumably tried to think of an answer. "Whale, there're a couple of things, to be honest! But mostly it's the scarf, which I see you aren't wearing today. I... kind of know that it was his scarf, even if neither one of you had said anyfin about it."

Roxy blinked a couple of times at that and rested her arms on the table before she leaned forward on them, curious. "How do you know that? I mean, yeah, it is, but if neither of us have said anyfi--anything about it, then how'd you know?"

Feferi shrugged and sort of glanced off to the side as she absently toyed with her hair. The smile was gone, replaced with the look of someone who's maybe been caught with their hand in the cookie jar. "I gave it to him. A couple years ago, before we moved out here. I made it for him for his wiggling day. It was the first thing I ever knitted. That's the only reason why I know."

Whatever answer Roxy had thought she'd get, that one definitely wasn't it. She sank back against her seat again as the words seeped in to her brain and she stared back down at the table again. No wonder Eridan had wanted it back so badly or why he had been so infuriated with her showing up to the party wearing it. He must have been trying to get it back before Feferi figured out that he had given it away in the first place. It all made sense, now.

She shook her head and leaned forward again. "I'm sorry. I didn't know about any of that. I'd have given it back if I had. He just dropped it on me when after school last week when I had to walk home and he took off without sayin' hi or givin' me his name or anything. So I figured hey what the hell free scarf. I should probably give it ba--"

"No!" Roxy blinked as Feferi suddenly surged forward. The melancholy look that had been in her eyes a moment before was replaced with pure excitement, and she had even taken a hold of Roxy's hands to give them a squeeze. "Absolelutely not! You can't go giving it back to him _now_. I mean, unless you reely want to, but you can't do it just because I told you I gave it to him! I know Eridan, and he wouldn't have let something like that go so easily."

Roxy leaned back a little as Feferi leaned in even further. That excitement on the troll's face seemed to ramp up a few notches and Roxy was stunned with the girl started to giggle. Outright _giggle_. "I think he reely likes you, Roxy! But he's awkward and silly and has a reely hard time with trying to tell people how he feels about anything. Ever. Like it's sort of a problem? But I reely, reely do think that he likes you. I haven't even seen him speak more than five words to someone he didn't have to, let alone give away somefin like that scarf!"

Thoughts leaped one way through Roxy's mind and then back the other as she let this information tumble around. She reeely--really, god damnit--thought that Eridan might like her, huh? In a way that sounds like it could lead to hot makeouts with a troll city. Roxy slowly extracted her hands from Feferi's before she let a grin break out across her own face and she leaned forward to place a hand on her shoulder. "Thank you. I mean, I know it's gotta kinda suck for you to see something you made just get handed off to another chick but you are all hells of classy and we should definitely chill some time. But this little conversation of ours has cleared up some things and I need to go hunt down a certain fishy faced troll. You know what class he's got right now?"

Feferi thought about it for a moment, mentally going through a checklist, before she finally nodded. "Yeah, but it's almost over, isn't it? He should be coming down to lunch next, though!"

And then the two girls shared a secretive smile before they stood up. Feferi placed a light hand on Roxy's arm and peered up at her before she said, with a soft and encouraging voice, "Good luck. You'll probably need it."

\---

Roxy never returned to her table after that, and Jane had to hand her bag as she left lunch to head to class again. Roxy shook her head at the inquisitive look that Jane gave her and smiled. "I'll tell you later. Run along now, and tell Peterson I might be a minute late. I've got something that I need to take care of." Jane just sighed and said alright before she joined the crowd flowing out of the dining hall and back to their classes.

She parked herself against the wall opposite the doors that lead into the hall so that she could watch each person as they walked in, waiting for him to show up. One person after another after another went in, but not a single one of them was who she was looking for. She almost started to give up hope on him even being there when she finally spied his familiar lightning shaped horns come around the corner.

Roxy sucked in a breath and pushed away from the wall and lifted a hand. "Yo! Sweet fins! C'mere a sec." She watched as Eridan stopped in his tracks, and she could see him try to calculate how fast he would have to walk to reasonably ignore her, but by the time he had made up his mind Roxy already stood in front of him with her hands on her hips to bar his passage. "So, I've been thinkin' about some stuff lately, and I've come to a conclusion that will definitely make us both very happy."

"Oh, yeah?" Eridan grumbled as he stared down at her, and Roxy felt him draw himself up to his full height as an intimidation measure. "And w-what's that?"

"You. Me. Friday night. We're goin' on a date and I ain't takin' no for an answer."


End file.
